Well, we are rapidly approaching those “last few days” to Christmas and are finishing off most of our Christmas Crafts for Kids, as well as Kids Christmas Cards. Both children said they wanted to make a gift for their friends.. so FINALLY (it only took me about 3 years to do so), we made recycled crayons! We have a hole tub worth of crayons and the kids don’t really use them anymore, so it was a good opportunity to “recycle” and make upcycled crayons stars!

Recycle Crayons Materials:

* Old crayons

* A heat proof silicon mold (in our case star shaped)

* Knife for cutting & oven for heating

Recycled Crayons How To:

Let’s start with top tips –

* Take care when “mixing colours”, crayons are not made from “pure colours” (i.e. red is not JUST red), so normal colour theory does not a apply (a blue and a yellow, may result in a brownish green)

* Personally, I would say, stick to pure colours (e.g. just yellow) or “adjacent colours” – e.g. red and orange, orange and yellow, yellow and green, green and blue etc – the crayon is likely to mix a little

* Crayons are made from different materials – some will melt better than others. You will also find, that some crayons will “separate out” into different layers that they are made up of – the lower you heat them, the less this will happen. So it is worth taking your crayons out AS SOON as they have melted (ours were even still a bit lumpy). I then like to give them a good stir at the end, to get any separated layers “back together again” and the resulting crayon working better. That is why not mixing too many colours is best!

* To clean your silicon tray – I found dish soap with boiling water good and then wiping it immediately with some paper Kitchen Towels. Repeat 2-3 times.

1) Strip your crayons of all paper – we found “peeling” them like a carrot with a knife worked best. If your crayon is VERY DIRTY looking, I recommend taking that top dirty layer off too – you don’t want the dirty inside your brand new crayon!

2) Fill your silicon trays – try and pack them as best as possible.

3) Place in the oven and heat to 100C. Keep checking. Once you can see they have all melted remove the silicon tray and let cool.

4) At this point I like to give them a quick stir with a toothpick. If you have mixed colours, don’t be too vigorous at this point.

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Gosh, I remember my first experience with these! I read “300 degrees” and of course, I thought it was Celsius! Of course, I burned everything lol Later I READ AGAIN and it was 300F I love these crayon melts, they are absolutely fabulous and once I can stand the smell of melted crayons again I will do this with my daughter again!!!

I Love this project!! However I used heart shaped trays & all of the colours (except black and brown). Then we passed these out for Valentine’s Day. The kids & teachers loved it! The kids found the hearts were fun using all of the crazy colours.

We did this today too, your blog is now where I turn for ideas! I didn’t fill up the mould enough, so got smaller crayons, but the kids absolutely loved doing it, they were really amazed by the whole process!! Thank you!

We made lego mini figure crayons with a silicone mold we picked up last year at Lego land…they turned out so cute. All of my boys and their buddies loved them. I did stick to primary colors and haven’t tried mixing them yet, but the boys really want to try it!

I made some last year as party bag fillers. I used inividual silicone cake moulds as the shapes I wanted to make were not heat resistant (were actually lego shaped icecube trays). Pouring into these was fine

I made these for Valentines for my daughter’s class- heart shaped for Valentine’s day. It was such a fun craft! I wanted swirls. My crayons were many colored and gorgeous. I did not stir at all- just a tap when they were melted to release any bubbles. I did (after trial and error) find that some crayons were better than others for this. In general, the ones that color well, melted well. The ones that we got from restaurants or the dollar store has to much plastic. They smelled awful & separated. Crayola melted easily and without separating. Also, I made a few in the microwave. I realize the point is to recycle what you have- but I sort by type not color now.

I melt my crayons in the microwave in baby food jars, stir with a Popsicle stick, then I poor the melted crayon into the candy molds. You don’t have to wash the baby food jars after melting just keep for a later melting project with same color. Using a mold makes it easy to layer. After first crayon color sets, I pour another color. Giving each different color a time to set keeps colors from blending. Children love the multicolor crayons. They also love the yellow happy face crayon, the brown teddy bear, the orange pumpkin, black bat etc. it’s easier to find the designs in candy molds. Learning is fun! Janet Klock

These shapes would be lovely in a glass container or bowl for the winter holidays. Also think leaves in autumnal colors, egg shapes for Spring, hearts. Put white or brown craft paper as a runner on the table to encourage drawing or writing.

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